THE governor of the Central Bank took his seat eight rows from the front of a tiered lecture hall in the College of Anaesthetists of Ireland on Merrion Square, Dublin 2.

Patrick Honohan, a former lead economist with the World Bank, cut an unassuming figure last Thursday lunchtime. He listened intently to a lecture by former IMF deputy director Dr Donal Donovan entitled 'What can we learn from a banking inquiry?'

Honohan had been quizzed the previous day at an Oireachtas Finance Committee on the Anglo Tapes and why he had decided not to make any criminal complaint in relation to them after they had emerged in the Irish Independent, Sunday Independent and on independent.ie.

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